


Fix You

by belivaird_st



Category: Carol (2015), The Price of Salt - Patricia Highsmith
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-06
Updated: 2018-09-08
Packaged: 2019-07-07 14:06:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15909765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/belivaird_st/pseuds/belivaird_st
Summary: Therese and Rindy take care of Carol after she breaks her ankle from a freak accident at work.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A broken bone is not fun. Especially when you get one after the first field trip at summer camp...

Madison Avenue, New York

_September, 1953_

Rindy watched Therese tuck a few magazines neatly next to a plate of collard greens with gravy mashed potatoes and roasted chicken on a serving tray. Then she picked up a glass of ice cold water and placed it on the other side. Rindy hopped left and right in the kitchen as Therese slowly held up the tray of food.

“Is that Mommy’s dinner?” Rindy asked breathlessly.

“Uh huh,” Therese said. “Do you want to go grab your baby blanket?”

“Yeah!” Rindy nodded. She ran out of the kitchen into the living room before coming back with a tiny pink cashmere blanket she hugged tightly in her arms.

“Okay, let’s go check on Mommy,” Therese sang to the girl softly. She began to carry the dinner tray carefully up the stair steps with Rindy tagging along behind. They headed towards the bedroom Therese shared with Carol on the second door to the left. They entered the room to find Carol sitting up, reading a book, with her left foot perched properly on a pillow in a plastered white cast. She had broken her ankle from tripping over a wooden toy duck on wheels at her furniture shop a couple of days ago. Some kid brought it along with his parents and left it out unattended. Carol had been moving down from a ladder and slipped on the wooden duck seconds later. The doctor advised her to take a week off of work and to spend the time at home in bed. Therese made sure she did everything to satisfy Carol’s desires and needs. She brought her the mail, fluffed out her pillows, brushed her hair, painted her toenails, gave Rindy a bath, fixed her glasses of water, cooked her meals, cleaned up the house, and reassured the regularly customers that would often visit the furniture shop constantly asking about Carol’s whereabouts. Therese would pretty much do anything for this woman, because she loved her to pieces.

“Hi, Mommy!” Rindy belted out, running towards her mother, who closed up her Agatha Christie novel and smiled through her pair of reading glasses.

“Hello, my sweetheart,” Carol spoke with a deep purr in the back of her throat. She grinned towards Therese with the tray of food and carefully set her book down on the nightstand where her ashtray was. She leaned her back against some pillows as she let Therese move around to the left side of the bed before placing the tray gently on the her lap. Carol tilted her head upwards automatically receiving a kiss from her lover.

“Hi,” Carol softly greeted.

“Hi,” Therese smiled.

“Here’s my baby blanket, Mommy, in case you get cold!” Rindy chirped, draping parts of the blanket over Carol’s collarbone and shoulder.

“Thanks, honey,” Carol chuckled. She looked down at her plate and picked up her fork. “Mmm, this food looks good! Thank you for cooking, Therese...”

“Is your foot feeling alright?” Therese asked. She placed one hand on the bed’s wooden headboard and began to watch Carol eat with her fork clattering.

“It’s fine for now,” Carol spoke with her mouth full of steamed spinach. “I’ll be sure to take a pain reliever pill before bed...”

Rindy covered Carol some more of the baby blanket. Then she swung one leg up on the queen mattress and started climbing up to cuddle with her mother. She wrapped one arm around Carol’s neck and buried her nose into her silk pajama shirt. Therese studied Carol’s foot and saw her red-painted toes wiggling out of the casted plaster. She headed towards the injured foot near the end of the bed and started kissing each wiggling toe.

**xxxx**


	2. Chapter 2

All giggly and bright-eyed, Rindy reached over and grabbed onto the brown knitted sock puppet Carol wore in her right hand and laughed as soon as she heard the mother welped and pleaded for her child to let go; using the sock puppet’s nasally voice. Rindy loosened her grip and watched the sock let out a breath of fresh air.

“ _Golly, that’s better! You had my nose, there, little girl!_ ” Carol spoke in the same sync as the sock puppet. She paused and made the puppet’s mouth gape open by widening her palm.

“You’re just a sock!” Rindy rejected, giggling some more in between. She had herself sprawled on top of her mother in the recliner chair with her legs folded and feet tucked. Carol’s white plaster casted foot laid perfectly out in front of her on a pillow on the coffee table. She felt a sharp, shooting pain go instantly through her broken ankle. She already took a pain reliever pill about a half an hour ago. Therese warned her to wait the next four or so more hours to have another. Argh! She couldn’t wait that long! 

“Uh oh, what’s the matter, Mommy?” Rindy asked her, cocking her head to one side as she took notice of Carol’s hurt, squinty-face expression. 

“ _Nothing to fear, dear! Your mommy’s ankle is only bothering her some!_ ” Carol kept closing and opening the sock puppet’s mouth to make it speak. Ignoring the pain, she let out a shaky sigh and continued to play with Rindy some more. 

A soft cough made both daughter and mother look over to see Rindy’s grandparents pushing a wheel chair in the living room with Therese standing close behind. The young woman stepped forward and clasped her hands together.

“Carol, the Airds’ brought you a chair,” she announced.

“I can see that,” Carol spoke back in her regular, normal voice. She snorted as she went ahead and let Rindy remove the sock puppet out of her hand. “Honestly, I don’t think that’s necessary. I have my crutches.”

“Those wooden tree stumps won’t give you enough foot support! Jennifer and I drove all the way here from New Jersey to provide you with this chair!” John Aird exclaimed. 

“It’s quite lovely, Carol. Truly,” Jennifer added.

“What you do you think, Angel? Should I go for it?” Carol asked Therese, allowing her to go make the final decision.

“Maybe you should, Carol. It’ll be a lot easier for you to navigate through the house,” Therese replied with a shrug.

Carol agreed. Minutes after she got seated in the wheelchair by the help of Rindy’s grandfather, she wanted to go outside for a bit of fresh air and the warm early afternoon. Therese took her by the rubber handlebars and rolled her outside the front of the apartment where Rindy was saying her goodbyes to her grandparents in the driveway beside their 1950 Mercedes. She hugged them and kissed them and promised to always be a good little girl.

Therese slipped her hand through Carol’s outstretched one and gave it a squeeze as they shared the space on top of their mohair welcome mat.

“Thank you for helping me around the house and taking good care of Rindy,” Carol said. 

“I’m always there for you,” Therese said.

Carol squeezed their hands this time and watched Rindy wave off the Airds’ car that was backing out of the driveway before leaving to take off.

**xxxx**


End file.
